Kroenke Town: Billionaire Stan Kroenke’s plan to remake the Midway District is already underway

Billionaire Stan Kroenke, the nation’s largest landowner and professional sports team mogul, is looking to transform the Midway District.

And he’s not stopping at Midway Rising, the megaproject to redevelop the city-owned Pechanga Arena property that is on its way to a City Council vote.

His development team is nearing completion just under a mile away, across from the Old Town Transit Center, on a seven-story, 223-unit housing project.

That tower is at the site of the former Perry’s Cafe, a once-popular greasy spoon diner on the edge of Old Town. It is now the first piece of the puzzle for Kroenke’s Midway vision.

Brad Termini — the CEO of Zephyr, partners on the Perry’s Cafe project and Midway Rising — said it was the Kroenke Group‘s idea to get started in the area while they negotiated the arena redevelopment with city officials.

“The Kroenke Group was actually the one who came to me about buying the property and developing it,” said Termini. “They view the Perry’s project as the ‘Gateway to Midway.'”

The Midway Rising project proposes more than $400 million in total infrastructure improvements, which would mostly be reimbursed in future decades through increases in property tax revenue to the developer. That project list includes a bike and pedestrian route from the new arena area to the Old Town Transit Center, making the connection between the Perry’s Cafe tower and Midway Rising more than just a general commitment to the area.

Kroenke, who owns the Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Rams and Arsenal FC and is buying the Los Angeles Angels, has looked to develop entire communities in other cities, typically an arena or a stadium as the focal point.

Termini said Kroenke is not going to stop at those two Midway properties.

“Look at what Kroenke Group did in Inglewood and look at downtown Denver or Columbia, Missouri,” he said. “Once they buy into a community, they see it all the way through.”

In those three cities, the Kroenke Group and its affiliated companies have indeed stayed the course.

In Denver, Kroenke’s development team is working to build 6,000 housing units —1,000 reserved for low-income residents — on 75 acres next to Denver’s Ball Arena, where his Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche play.

In Inglewood, Kroenke’s company is building out its Hollywood Park development centered around SoFi Stadium, home to Kroenke’s Los Angeles Rams. For that development, Kroenke has completed a 6,000-seat entertainment arena, 500 of the 2,500 housing units he’s proposed, and retail space. Construction on the final 2,000 housing units, a television and movie studio, a hotel and additional retail and commercial developments are in the works.

Those developments all mirror what is proposed for San Diego’s Midway District. The only thing that differs among the three is that Pechanga Arena is now home to only one team — the San Diego Gulls, a minor league hockey team.

Termini said the group counts the Gulls as a major tenant, and they aren’t worried about the lack of a team from one of the country’s big four leagues. He said the arena concept is predicated on drawing major concert events that San Diego can’t regularly get. Other minor league teams — the San Diego Seals, Sockers and Strikeforce — all left Pechanga Arena for Oceanside’s Frontwave Arena in recent years. The NBA G League’s San Diego Clippers are Frontwave’s marquee tenants.